1. Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient
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  3. Zanzibar’s Arab diaspora families and decolonization in the western Indian Ocean, 1964-2014
Veranstaltungen
Vortrag

Zanzibar’s Arab diaspora families and decolonization in the western Indian Ocean, 1964-2014

Vortrag von Nathaniel Mathews (Binghampton University, currently visiting research fellow at ZMO)

This talk is an overview of my book manuscript under review. The book is a history of the shifts and re-orderings in nationality and citizenship among a networked group of diasporic post-revolution exiles of mixed Arab and African descent, during the era of decolonization in the Indian Ocean, from the 1950s through the 1970s. Through use of archival documents, oral histories, and locally published vernacular works, ZWAC weaves together the story of a postcolonial diaspora from Zanzibar as they become exiles, emigres and Omani citizens. In seven chapters, it traces the diverse modern historical experiences within this group up into the twenty-first century: as ‘Zanzibari’ anti- colonial nationalists, as ‘Manga refugees’ shipped to Oman, as exiles and political dissidents in the UK and Dubai, as ethnic returnees to Oman, and as popular intellectuals of Zanzibar's history in Oman. ZWAC argues that these experiences demand we see Indian Ocean diasporas as not antithetical to nationalism, but as shapers of multiple national discourses not only through discourse of homeland elsewhere but through direct participation in the development of the territorial nation-state.

Nathaniel Mathews is a historian of modern Africa, specializing in the history of modern Zanzibar, and the global afterlives of the Zanzibar revolution. He is Undergraduate Director and Assistant Professor for Africana Studies at Binghampton University. Between March and June 2022 he is a visiting research fellow at ZMO with the Oman Research Fellowship.

The event will be held in a hybrid format. Please register here for online participation: https://tinyurl.com/26kukj7k. If you would like to attend in person, please send an email to registration@zmo.de

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